Peter Johann Peters (* March 13, 1820 in Breyell; † July 7, 1870 in Cologne) was a German musician and composer. Of his compositions, only the Westfalenlied ("Ihr mögt den Rhein, den stolzen, preisen") is still known. In 1851 he became conductor of the ''Stollwerckschen Vaudeville Theater''. He founded the ''Gertrudenhofkapelle'' after the fire of the ''Kölner Stadttheater'' (1859), which ended his activity there. He served together with members of the Theaterkapelle of which he was director until 1864. He is also said to have been conductor of the ''Larronge Opera'' in Cologne (Adolph L'Arronge was head of the theatre from 1858 to 1863).
Of his compositions only the ''Westfalenlied'' (Westphalia Song) (Op. 23, 1868/69) after a text by Emil Rittershaus is known today, as well as the ''Rheinlied'' (Rhine River Song) ("Strömt herbei, ihr Völkerscharen", op. 3, 1867 improvised during a festival in Cologne's Gürzenich and printed in 1868) based on a text by Otto Julius Inkermann (C. O. Sternau). The ''Rheinlied'' was recommended in 1912 in Prussia, in the context of war education in the empire for school lessons in the 7th and 8th grade. Both songs were included in the ''Allgemeine Deutsche Kommersbuch'', the ''Neue Liederbuch für Artilleristen'' (1893), the ''Sport-Liederbuch'' (1921), the Rheinlied also appeared in the ''Deutsche Armee Liederbuch'', the ''Weltkriegs-Liedersammlung'' (1926) and the ''Wander-Liederbuch'' (1927)[2]. The popularity of the ''Rheinlied'' at that time is also indicated by the fact that ''J. P. Tonger'sche Musikalienhandlung'' paid 1,000 Goldmarks for the publishing rights in 1901. Today the ''Rheinlied'' is only to be found in the songbook of the ''Kartellverband katholischer deutscher Studentenvereine'' (KV songbook) while the ''Westfalenlied'' with Peters' melody is regionally widespread.
